Inquiry to examine key decisions by Pezzullo after secret texts with powerbroker revealed

Investigators are being asked to examine key decisions by Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo that could have favoured Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs after a political firestorm over leaked messages that forced the senior public servant to step aside.

The inquiry will consider whether Pezzullo declared his friendship with Briggs during a long period when he shared inside information about the federal government and sought to undermine cabinet ministers and public service enemies.

Mike Pezzullo has stood aside as secretary of the Department of Home Affairs.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In the latest revelations, a series of text messages show that Pezzullo sought to convince political leaders to introduce a system of “D-Notices” to allow government agencies to pressure media organisations not to publish stories deemed damaging to national security.

Pezzullo pursued the issue after his anger was stoked by a report by then-News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst – who is now state politics editor for The Age – about his secret proposal to allow the nation’s external intelligence agency to spy on Australians.

In other messages, Pezzullo wrote that the government could “criminalise” journalists in certain circumstances for reporting on what they were told by government whistleblowers.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wanted to “expedite” the investigation after Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told the department boss to step aside from his post because of the questions over his contact with the powerbroker.

A key issue for investigators is whether Pezzullo flouted the public service code of conduct and its requirement that he “maintain appropriate confidentiality” and “avoid any conflict of interest” in his work, as well as not sharing any inside information improperly.

Pezzullo will remain on his salary package worth more than $900,000 while the investigation is under way, but observers unable to speak on the record described his position as untenable and the government named senior public servant Stephanie Foster as acting secretary to lead the department.

Federal cabinet ministers were briefed on the issue at a meeting in Adelaide on Monday afternoon, signalling the depth of concern about Pezzullo’s contact with Briggs, a close friend of former prime minister Scott Morrison.

The investigation centres on hundreds of encrypted messages Pezzullo sent to Briggs over several years, obtained by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes.

But the investigation will go beyond the personal messages to examine all aspects of the relationship between the two men, who shared sensitive information over a period when Briggs sought lucrative contracts in areas overseen by Pezzullo and his department.

“They’re going to look at everything,” said one government source who was not authorised to speak publicly about the remit for the investigators.

In one example of a potential subject for the inquiry, the Department of Home Affairs approved an $80,000 contract with a company led by Briggs to explore a private system to run quarantine services for people coming into Australia during the pandemic.

The company, Australian Quarantine Services, sought commercial partners to set up the scheme with help from Pezzullo’s department, sparking questions from Labor home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally in the Senate in 2021.

Albanese said he spoke to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on Sunday night about the revelations. O’Neil referred the concerns to the Australian Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, who named former senior public servant Lynelle Briggs to conduct the inquiry.

Briggs was the Australian Public Service Commissioner for five years, the chief executive of Medicare and a member of the aged care royal commission. She is not related to Scott Briggs.

While the government did not take any action against Pezzullo at first, O’Neil called him on Monday to ask him to step aside. He agreed to do so and Albanese said this was the “appropriate” action.

“I think this requires a full and proper disclosure – that needs to be done in an expeditious way, and I’m sure it will be,” the prime minister said on Monday.

The government did not put a timeframe on the investigation, but Albanese said it would be expedited.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton defended Pezzullo, saying he believed the veteran public servant put the national interest first in all his interactions.

Dutton worked closely with Pezzullo as Home Affairs Minister over several years, and in his previous role as immigration minister.

“I found him to always be professional ... he conducted himself in a thoroughly professional way in my dealings with him,” Dutton said during a press conference in Moree, NSW, on Monday morning.

Dutton said Pezzullo had worked closely with Labor governments, including a stint as deputy chief of staff to Kim Beazley, as well as with the Coalition.

Noting the government had referred Pezzullo to the Australian Public Service commissioner, without standing him down from his job, Dutton said: “If the prime minister doesn’t have confidence in Mr Pezzullo, he should say so.

“I can tell you from my time as minister, Mr Pezzullo served the government faithfully as he did the Labor Party when they were in power, and I think he was able to, in all his interactions, put the country first, and I think that’s what you’ve seen demonstrated in his work at Home Affairs.”

But former foreign minister Bob Carr said the leaked messages showed Pezzullo was running an “overt political agenda” and was “living on another planet” when he should have been an impartial public servant.

“If he was so deluded as to think that was part of his mission, working as a departmental head for the government of the day and the people of Australia, then what other things did he do that reflected a similarly flawed judgment – a shockingly flawed judgment?” Carr told Sky News.

Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration, said he would be “flabbergasted” if Pezzullo lasted more than a few weeks in the job following the revelations.

“This is an open-and-shut case,” he said. “I’d say that once Lynelle Briggs confirms the messages are genuine, it’s all over.”

Asked to explain how Pezzullo could have breached the public service code of conduct, Rizvi highlighted two factors.

“One of the core public service values is that public servants be, and be seen to be, apolitical,” he said.

“These texts are anything but apolitical. This also goes to the probity and integrity of tender processes - he was involved in extensive discussions with the lead bidder on a major tender.”

Independent MP Sophie Scamps said Pezzullo’s position as the secretary of Home Affairs was untenable, while Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim said the public servant should resign or be sacked.

“Mr Pezzullo’s time as a senior public servant needs to end, and it needs to end today,” McKim said.

“Throughout his time as secretary of the Department of Home Affairs he has overseen a litany of governance failures and shown complete contempt for the principle of accountability.”

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